Rangers lure bear from campsite with more beer

October 7th, 2019

By Cedric Jackson

Contributor at Animal Channel

If you’ve ever gone camping before, you’ve learned the rule about safely hiding your food so that raccoons, possums, and bear don’t get into it and disturb your campsite. But you probably haven’t heard the same thing about alcohol.

Let’s face it: most of the time, it would never even cross your mind.

Wild animals don’t usually go after your six-pack of beer or the bottle of whiskey you brought for hot toddies. But for a few unfortunate campers, that was exactly what happened.

There’s one exception to the alcohol rule, and it’s a whopper.

“Pretty well anything that has an odor and digestible calories, bears will be attracted to,” says Stephen Herrero, a professor and author of a book about bear attacks. “Beer — once it’s open — has its own odor, and that odor could certainly attract bears.”